Junior Explorers Subscription Box Review – March 2015

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Junior Explorers is a subscription service aimed at children ages 5-12 that teaches them about global ecosystems through monthly “missions.” A portion of the proceeds from this subscription goes toward Mission Give Back, a program to support front line conservation projects around the world!

This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

Last month, Junior Explorers sent us a sample mission kit, which my seven-year-old and I enjoyed quite a bit! This month, however, they sent us the welcome kit, so it’s a little out of order. In any case, this month’s box has everything we need to become a Junior Explorer and to go on the missions. It also has a beginner mission – learning about Biomes!

Included in the welcome kit was an official Junior Explorers water bottle! We can seriously never have too many water bottles.

Usually, the monthly packages from Junior Explorers come in a big envelope, but since this is the welcome kit, it came in a box that is to be used to store materials from future missions. The welcome kit does include a mission, however, and this is what a mission envelope usually looks like.

Here is the letter and the membership card that were sent. It went straight into my son’s wallet!

“Biomes” is a fitting mission for the welcome kit because the missions tend to center around a particular biome. This is the field guide that was included with all kinds of information about Earth’s different biomes. The upper left inset is a thumbnail of the cover.

The welcome kit also includes a large wall map to show where all Earth’s biomes are located. Thanks to kids’ subscription boxes, the kids’ room now has a “map wall”!

The welcome kit included loads of stickers for my son to decorate his box with. He instantly applied all of them! Future (and in our case, past) mailings also include new stickers to decorate the box, showing new biomes and animals discovered on that mission.

This is the button, wristband, and temporary tattoos that came with this mission. I think Junior Explorers comes with every little piece of swag that kids this age are into! These come standard with every mission.

After appropriating all the inclusions in the welcome kit, my son was ready to tackle the online mission.

This month, a large part of the mission was to explore the world map to see where the different biomes are. This information is also on the wall map, but the online version has many animals pictured, and when you click on an animal, you get a pop-up screen with all the facts on that animal. There is really a lot to learn here!

Following the map exercise, there was a multiple-choice guessing game about the biomes and animals featured. Way to sneak a quiz into fun time, Junior Explorers! They really did figure out how to make it fun!

Once my son finished the mission, this certificate popped up for us to fill and print. Such a nice touch!

Verdict: Junior Explorers is awesome! It’s really unique! Like many kids’ subscription boxes, it’s not about retail value at all, it’s about the education and fun levels. The missions are really well executed. I never learned about biomes in elementary school, so I feel like my son is getting a deeper understanding of the planet’s geography and the animal life therein. He really likes it and is excited to be part of a club like this! Plus he loves collecting all the stuff they send every month, and now he has a completely decked-out trunk to keep it all in!

Anna has been a fan of subscription boxes since joining Birchbox in 2013, but didn’t become a true addict until discovering subscriptions she could share with her children. Her favorites include Kiwi Crate and Fab Kids.

All views in this review are the opinion of the author. My Subscription Addiction will never accept payment in exchange for a review, but will accept a box at no cost to provide honest opinions on the box. This post may contain affiliate/referral links. Read the complete My Subscription Addiction disclosure.

6 Comments

Mallery
September 16, 2015 at 10:31 pm

I’m looking into getting this for my 6yo son, and it sounds perfect for him. I’m a bit concerned seeing that the walrus is listed as a reptile in the picture biome book. Have you found many errors like this so far? (Alternatively, am I just losing my biologist mind after having three small kids and totally wrong myself?)

The age range, 5-12, seems unusually broad. I think the overall experience would appeal to perhaps ages 5-10 at the oldest. I know our 12 year old would have rolled his eyes if he got this, lol. It’s that age when they’re suddenly too cool for, well, everything.

Thanks so much for posting this. I just got this Welcome Kit a couple of days ago. I was confused because I thought my son would be sent a mission. I was disappointed when all that came was this after paying $21. Now I understand, that this is just the first step and next month he will start receiving actual missions. I wish they could of explained it more clearly at sign up that the first month you receive this and not a mission kit.